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tanookihans's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Domestic abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Rape, Alcoholism, and Pedophilia
animalsmals's review
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Blood, Child abuse, and Cursing
Moderate: Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Vomit, Animal death, Child death, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, and Incest
magellen's review
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It's wonderful to read a book that feels like an author hitting all their marks-the pacing, the gore, the dread 👍👍
There are echoes of similar themes, similar pacing and plot markers, similar gore to The Only Good Indians BUT IN THE BEST WAY. Especially with this book being about the Slasher formula. For me its enjoyable to see signature traits of an author's style popping up again. Especially when they come in a beautifully written gore extravaganza.
Great great book and I can't wait for the sequel.
There are echoes of similar themes, similar pacing and plot markers, similar gore to The Only Good Indians BUT IN THE BEST WAY. Especially with this book being about the Slasher formula. For me its enjoyable to see signature traits of an author's style popping up again. Especially when they come in a beautifully written gore extravaganza.
Great great book and I can't wait for the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Incest, Rape, and Sexual assault
lou_o_donnell's review
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gore, Domestic abuse, Death, Child abuse, Body horror, Blood, and Animal death
foolzerrand's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The twists! The turns! The interesting literary analysis of what themes and motifs mean in slashers! Absolute banger baby!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence
archaicrobin's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I’m going to be honest here, I hated this book at first and could not get it into it. I had to make myself keep reading this several times and I’m so glad I did, because it is beyond worth it!!
Stephen Graham Jones is one author I can’t stay away from, even when one of his novels doesn’t hit right. I was so excited to start My Heart is a Chainsaw, but reading something easy and straightforward then switching to Stephen Graham Jones’s style of writing was ROUGH. This isn’t one you can pick up alongside another, you really need to dedicate time to it.
I would also say if you’re not at least somewhat familiar with slashers this might confuse you a good amount of the time, since Jade, our main character, has a wealth of slasher knowledge that is dissected, analyzed, and referenced constantly throughout the entire novel. There are moments where you can hear Jones spewing his slasher expertise through Jade, which annoyed me at first but eventually get used to the chaotic narrative.
This story is a great slasher but it also is so much more. I did not see myself even liking this book when I started it, let alone loving it! I can’t wait to read the next novel in this series, already announced for 2022!
Stephen Graham Jones is one author I can’t stay away from, even when one of his novels doesn’t hit right. I was so excited to start My Heart is a Chainsaw, but reading something easy and straightforward then switching to Stephen Graham Jones’s style of writing was ROUGH. This isn’t one you can pick up alongside another, you really need to dedicate time to it.
I would also say if you’re not at least somewhat familiar with slashers this might confuse you a good amount of the time, since Jade, our main character, has a wealth of slasher knowledge that is dissected, analyzed, and referenced constantly throughout the entire novel. There are moments where you can hear Jones spewing his slasher expertise through Jade, which annoyed me at first but eventually get used to the chaotic narrative.
This story is a great slasher but it also is so much more. I did not see myself even liking this book when I started it, let alone loving it! I can’t wait to read the next novel in this series, already announced for 2022!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Murder, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Vomit
marlireads's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I'm so conflicted on this one...
Most of the book was definitely not as slasher-y as I expected, which was honestly a bit disappointing. But I was kind of enjoying myself too, but also the bigger part of the book where not a lot was happening, also got a bit tedious. Nothing really happened for too long before ending up at the juicy bits. Basically that chunk in the story could have been shorter.
I also don't really know how to feel about the reveal.Even though supernatural elements were mentioned briefly, this story is so rooted in reality I wasn't able to believe the twist. The shock factor wasn't there. I feel like I enjoy stories much more if it's the other way around: when you're on the path of maybe believing there's a supernatural force at play, but it turns out to be a much more human cause. I feel like that's a much more effective plottwist.
I enjoyed my ride with Jade. I loved her! I listened to this book on audio and this really helped showing her personality. It was really well done. Herobsessionlove for slashers was really infectious. I want to be that into horror films, but unfortunately I'm an absolute scaredy cat and I don't go anywhere near those. I want to be a horror chick though... *sigh*
Most of the book was definitely not as slasher-y as I expected, which was honestly a bit disappointing. But I was kind of enjoying myself too, but also the bigger part of the book where not a lot was happening, also got a bit tedious. Nothing really happened for too long before ending up at the juicy bits. Basically that chunk in the story could have been shorter.
I also don't really know how to feel about the reveal.
I enjoyed my ride with Jade. I loved her! I listened to this book on audio and this really helped showing her personality. It was really well done. Her
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Murder, Suicide attempt, and Vomit
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Rape
Minor: Alcoholism and Pregnancy
abbygrace226's review
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Violence
profaneprsefone's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
tw: suicide attempts, sexual assault, abuse (which I did not know when I started reading)
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE
National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-4-A-CHILD
----
This book is the very definition of the well-worn sayings "write what you know" and "play to your strengths." Seriously, Stephen Graham Jones would make an excellent horror YouTuber on par with my favorite horror-tuber, Ryan Hollinger. There was sparsely a trope not called out, a rule not stated as law, or a film unreferenced in this entire narrative. And let me tell you, there are some horror deep cuts in here.
While The Final Girl Support Group was concerned only with so-called horror royalty (Sidney Prescott, Laurie Strode, etc.) this book takes an approach that is equal parts Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and The Rest of Us Just Live Here. However, this unique combination brings us to our next question: how do you make the mystery of who's behind the mask fun, engaging and... mysterious for the audience if the protagonist is constantly telling the people around them exactly what's about to happen?
When it comes to this book, there are multiple answers to this question, which is what keeps things interesting:
1. you have so many movies to choose from that our heroine can only make a very, VERY informed guess at the twists and turns of the plot, or
2. our protagonist, and by extension, the reader, has a pretty good idea of what's about to happen, but like Hooper in Jaws, half the conflict arises from getting the people around her to believe her in a sort of "boy who cried wolf" situation, OR
3. you as the reader know exactly what's about to happen, but Jade (our teenage Native American protagonist with a truly terrifying home life and a love for all things slasher) needs to experience the growth that it will take to realize it for herself.
Number one and number two keep the reader engaged with the plot, but number three keeps the reader engaged in the growth of our focal character, which was a brilliant decision by Jones, as that emotional journey occupies a good chunk of the latter half of the novel, so even when the blindfolds are off and the mystery solved, you're still interested in what the story has to offer. Hell, I would go so far as to say that the conclusion of the novel might as well be called "horror therapy."
This leads me to my next point of praise for this book: just how cinematic the third person narrative is. Now, it's all fine and well to throw in a couple of lines of "if this were a horror movie, the camera would linger on this mask for a few frames," but the cinematic eye is present in every single description peppered throughout the book, from ideas for montages to putting the literary equivalent of the perfect Dutch Tilt. Jones' framing of the action and even the mundanity of this story would be equally at home in a director's chair as it is in the author's desk chair.
What's most (or in this case, least) interesting about self-referential horror is that once you reduce characters to their corresponding horror/slasher tropes, what you're doing is essentially the two-dimension-izing of your main cast, so it can be hard to make them feel like real people. That was a problem I ran into with The Final Girl Support Group, once I knew which character was which Final Girl, it became a whole lot less interesting. But somehow, Jones manages to thread the needle and make these characters feel at once like tropes you've seen a million times before (the skeptical cop, the referential horror fan best friend, the final girl, the Ahab/Loomis, etc.) AND like fully fleshed out characters with rich, internal lives. This world never feels Truman Show-esque, built from cardboard and catch phrases, but like a real town riddled with real issues like gentrification, economic instability, classism, substance abuse problems, and (somehow) multiple potential horror backstories, which I suppose is what happens when a town metaphorically and literally sits still long enough.
As for the more difficult subject matters mentioned in the trigger warning above, the way the author deals with them is more concerned with the ripples and aftermaths of a traumatic event, which, when you really think about it, is all horror really is. Friday the 13th ripples out from the drowning of Jason Voorhees. Nightmare on Elm Street ripples out from the death and burning of Freddy Krueger. There is a brief flashback to traumatic material, but it is blessedly short and non-exploitative. Even the protagonist's suicidal ideation is a ripple out from the horror she experienced as a child and every day since.
Now to the subject of endings (no spoilers). Some of my favorite endings in books are the small victories. Not the happily ever afters, not the deus ex machinas, just... life. You as the novel's protagonist might have just been though this life changing/defining event, but the world still spins and bill still need to be paid.
Having said that, this ending sort of blindsided me with its simplicity and tranquility, mainly because the rest of the story was the exact opposite. I actually had to stop and think about it for a while before deciding that I both liked it and thought it fit the themes and tone of the overall story.
In summation, I'd say that if you're looking for a Halloween horror read, this is by far my favorite.
...so far (melodramatic musical sting, fade to black, cue credits)
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255
RAINN Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-HOPE
National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-4-A-CHILD
----
This book is the very definition of the well-worn sayings "write what you know" and "play to your strengths." Seriously, Stephen Graham Jones would make an excellent horror YouTuber on par with my favorite horror-tuber, Ryan Hollinger. There was sparsely a trope not called out, a rule not stated as law, or a film unreferenced in this entire narrative. And let me tell you, there are some horror deep cuts in here.
While The Final Girl Support Group was concerned only with so-called horror royalty (Sidney Prescott, Laurie Strode, etc.) this book takes an approach that is equal parts Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and The Rest of Us Just Live Here. However, this unique combination brings us to our next question: how do you make the mystery of who's behind the mask fun, engaging and... mysterious for the audience if the protagonist is constantly telling the people around them exactly what's about to happen?
When it comes to this book, there are multiple answers to this question, which is what keeps things interesting:
1. you have so many movies to choose from that our heroine can only make a very, VERY informed guess at the twists and turns of the plot, or
2. our protagonist, and by extension, the reader, has a pretty good idea of what's about to happen, but like Hooper in Jaws, half the conflict arises from getting the people around her to believe her in a sort of "boy who cried wolf" situation, OR
3. you as the reader know exactly what's about to happen, but Jade (our teenage Native American protagonist with a truly terrifying home life and a love for all things slasher) needs to experience the growth that it will take to realize it for herself.
Number one and number two keep the reader engaged with the plot, but number three keeps the reader engaged in the growth of our focal character, which was a brilliant decision by Jones, as that emotional journey occupies a good chunk of the latter half of the novel, so even when the blindfolds are off and the mystery solved, you're still interested in what the story has to offer. Hell, I would go so far as to say that the conclusion of the novel might as well be called "horror therapy."
This leads me to my next point of praise for this book: just how cinematic the third person narrative is. Now, it's all fine and well to throw in a couple of lines of "if this were a horror movie, the camera would linger on this mask for a few frames," but the cinematic eye is present in every single description peppered throughout the book, from ideas for montages to putting the literary equivalent of the perfect Dutch Tilt. Jones' framing of the action and even the mundanity of this story would be equally at home in a director's chair as it is in the author's desk chair.
What's most (or in this case, least) interesting about self-referential horror is that once you reduce characters to their corresponding horror/slasher tropes, what you're doing is essentially the two-dimension-izing of your main cast, so it can be hard to make them feel like real people. That was a problem I ran into with The Final Girl Support Group, once I knew which character was which Final Girl, it became a whole lot less interesting. But somehow, Jones manages to thread the needle and make these characters feel at once like tropes you've seen a million times before (the skeptical cop, the referential horror fan best friend, the final girl, the Ahab/Loomis, etc.) AND like fully fleshed out characters with rich, internal lives. This world never feels Truman Show-esque, built from cardboard and catch phrases, but like a real town riddled with real issues like gentrification, economic instability, classism, substance abuse problems, and (somehow) multiple potential horror backstories, which I suppose is what happens when a town metaphorically and literally sits still long enough.
As for the more difficult subject matters mentioned in the trigger warning above, the way the author deals with them is more concerned with the ripples and aftermaths of a traumatic event, which, when you really think about it, is all horror really is. Friday the 13th ripples out from the drowning of Jason Voorhees. Nightmare on Elm Street ripples out from the death and burning of Freddy Krueger. There is a brief flashback to traumatic material, but it is blessedly short and non-exploitative. Even the protagonist's suicidal ideation is a ripple out from the horror she experienced as a child and every day since.
Now to the subject of endings (no spoilers). Some of my favorite endings in books are the small victories. Not the happily ever afters, not the deus ex machinas, just... life. You as the novel's protagonist might have just been though this life changing/defining event, but the world still spins and bill still need to be paid.
Having said that, this ending sort of blindsided me with its simplicity and tranquility, mainly because the rest of the story was the exact opposite. I actually had to stop and think about it for a while before deciding that I both liked it and thought it fit the themes and tone of the overall story.
In summation, I'd say that if you're looking for a Halloween horror read, this is by far my favorite.
...so far (melodramatic musical sting, fade to black, cue credits)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Murder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
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